


Tried to be chill (but you're so hot that I melted)

by Iamprongsie



Series: Star Wars Modern AU [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Mutual Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Rex POV, Slice of Life, these two are absolute nerds and I love them so much, usual bad language expected from 20-something uni students, well it's not love yet but it's getting there, well kinda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-06 00:05:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17928932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iamprongsie/pseuds/Iamprongsie
Summary: And yeah, Cody’s out, and so’s Rex, but he doesn’t want to turn it into the whole ‘oh you’re gay? I’m gay too, let’s date!’ debacle. Dating purely because you’re both into the same gender always ends badly, it feels like dating for the sake of it. And yeah, they have stuff in common, it would be nice to date Cody, but he doesn’t know if Cody’s intohim.





	Tried to be chill (but you're so hot that I melted)

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the first chronological instalment of the mythical modern au I've been yelling about since November! This fic has kinda become my baby tbh, I've had it going for three months or so

One day, he promises himself, he’s going to do something about this stupid crush. Rex has known Cody for years, they’re _friends_ , why is he letting himself ruin this?

Especially when their friendship is so good at the moment, in the little moments when he catches himself staring at Cody and occasionally sees him staring back, when they go to the good cafe off campus and get coffee, bitching good-naturedly about their roommates in Te Reo, and oh god that one time when they were caught in the sprinklers while they were running to the dorms and his tight white shirt went translucent and Rex nearly made a move right there, in the middle of the maths lawns.

And yeah, Cody’s out, and so’s Rex, but he doesn’t want to turn it into the whole ‘oh you’re gay? I’m gay too, let’s date!’ debacle. Dating purely because you’re both into the same gender always ends badly, it feels like dating for the sake of it. And yeah, they have stuff in common, it would be nice to date Cody, but he doesn’t know if Cody’s into _him_. They’ve gone to the Oz together, and even though Cody’s gotten heaps of offers from various guys, he’s turned them down. That doesn’t mean much though, Rex has turned down just as many. But then again, that’s because he’s been secretly pining for his friend since the start of uni. 

Anakin keeps trying to drag him out of the dorm, informing him that he needs to stop moping and make a move, but he’s too stuck in his head to do that. It’s a shame too, Cody’s one of the only people Rex thinks he might be able to keep a relationship going with. The fact that he’s seen Rex at the lowest he can go, as well as being amazingly attractive and funny and gorgeous might help with that too. 

_Shit_ he needs to concentrate.

Not on Cody, goddamnit brain, on his work. That teaching degree isn’t gonna earn itself, especially if he wants to teach PE. That shit’s _hard_. Anakin’s having enough hell in his classes, and he’s only getting a degree in primary school education. Who knew you had to have a full-blown english degree just to teach kids how to read? 

He turns his eyes back to the teacher, who’s now talking about… the male reproductive system of all fucking things. Like he needs any reminder on how that works, especially with Cody sitting next to him in that goddamn tight black shirt. Rex makes the mistake of turning to look at Cody just as he’s leaning back and stretching his arms out behind him, making his shirt ride up a bit to show off his toned stomach. He chokes on nothing, imagining licking that little bit of skin and he feels his face burst into flames. Cody straightens back up and turns a concerned eye onto Rex, until Rex motions at his water bottle before taking a sip. Cody nods and turns around, focusing on the teacher again. Rex takes the opportunity to ogle his friend again, except Cody turns around _again_ and sees him staring. Rex immediately blushes again, and some little part of him (ok, a big part) notices that Cody’s blushing as well. They break eye contact and turn back to their notes, but both are distracted. 

Aaand this class is dragging on for ages, this third year course is almost exactly the same as the first and second year courses. Luckily he kept all his old notes, it’s been super easy so far. He starts absentmindedly doodling on his book, letting his mind wander. 

Eventually the lesson ends and they make their way back to the dorms in a comfortable but slightly strained silence. Rex doesn’t know if it’s strained because they were both staring or if Cody feels uncomfortable around Rex now that he’s kinda figured out that Rex has a crush on him, but it’s odd. 

***

They’re standing outside Rex’s dorm, almost too close for it to be considered two guys having a normal conversation in the middle of a loud hallway. Room 3 is playing music again, the door open, and there’s the usual noise that accompanies a friday afternoon on a campus full of young twenty-somethings. He nearly doesn’t catch what Cody asks him, thoughts on his bed and that pack of beer he bought last night and hid in the back of his fridge so Anakin wouldn’t steal it. He can’t wait to get into his room and forget what’s been one of the shittiest weeks of classes this year. There was an explosion over in the chem building and so their theory classes were moved all over the shop, and all the professors have been running around trying to figure out where their classes are due to the limited space. All in all, it’s been shit, and sitting and moping on his bed with a pack of beer is looking better and better. 

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Um, d’you want to get dinner tonight?” Cody asks, fidgeting with his books as Rex tries to figure out what he means. The five of them usually eat together because they usually eat in the cafeteria or the dorm kitchen and it’s just easier to cook for five instead of one or two. 

“What, like a group?” He’s pretty sure his brain is broken, because Cody can’t possibly be asking him out on a date. Right? 

“No, uh. Just you. Well, and me.”

“Oh, right!” Shit, it must be a date. 

“You don’t have to say yes or anything, I just thought it’d be nice.” 

“Shit, yes! Of course!” Great, now he looks too eager. It’s probably just guys being dudes, getting dinner together somewhere. 

“Uh, should we go to that pizza place? La Trattoria?” Cody runs a hand through his hair, leaning up against the wall with one leg propped up on it. 

“Yeah, I’d like that. What time?”

“Seven?”

“Sounds good!”

“Great!”

They stand in awkward silence for a few seconds before Rex speaks up. 

“Ah, I should go inside…”

“Yeah, I should go. See you tonight?”

“Definitely.” 

Cody smiles at him and walks off in the direction of his dorms, and if Rex shamelessly ogles his ass as he’s walking away, well, that’s for him to know and Cody to (probably) never find out. 

***  
“Holy shit, so is it a date or not?” Anakin sits up too fast on his bed and whacks his head on the ceiling - usually Rex would laugh but he’s a bit busy having an emotional crisis right now to notice. “Ow. Is it a date?”

“How the fuck would I know? Sure, we’re friends, and we’re both out, but it’s not like I can come up to him and ask ‘do you want to date me or do you just want to get into my pants?’”

“I mean, you _could_ , just maybe ask it in a private place in case the answer’s yes.”

“You, shut the fuck up. How the hell are you even dating two people if that’s your idea of flirting?”

“I got Obi-Wan with that line, thank you so much.”

With that, Anakin lazily throws a stress ball at Rex’s head and jumps down the ladder to go rummaging through the fridge. When he resurfaces he’s got a slice of pizza in one hand, another in his mouth, and a bottle of beer in his other hand. He makes himself comfortable on Rex’s bed (it’s basically their couch because their room is miniscule) and finishes his bite. 

Rex is still stuck on the fact that his human disaster of a roommate managed to a) date two people and b) reel in Obi-fucking-wan Kenobi with lines like that. Although, it should make sense. Obi-wan’s oblivious as fuck, and definitely the kind of person who makes awful awful jokes along those lines all the time. Then something else catches his attention.

“Are you drinking my beer?”

“Yes. And when I first met Padmé I spilt my coffee all over her and asked her if she was an angel, so I guess it’s my magnetic charm,” Anakin shrugs, snickering at Rex with the face of the truly annoying. 

“What magnetic charm? You tried to impress them yesterday in front of the museum and landed ass up in a fountain.”

“See? Magnetic charm!”

“Cody and Obi-Wan had to drag you out of there because you got stuck. It’s a miracle you made it to twenty without drowning or something.” 

“Mum says she had me on a child leash until I was about ten so that’s probably the only reason,” Anakin replies, eating his pizza. “Seriously, why are you suddenly freaking out over if he wants to date you or not? He hasn’t dated anyone in at least a year, that should be a pretty good indicator.”

“Why am I talking emotions with you?” 

“Contrary to popular opinion, I’m good at emotions,” Anakin sniffs. “Also you would have broken your piece of shit coffee machine and be reduced to instant coffee from the dorm kitchen by now.”

Ok, that’s fair. Instant coffee sucks, especially when people (Padmé) steal his stash of the only good brand available. And Anakin is somewhat better at emotions than him. Somewhat. 

“So spill, Fett.”

“I just don’t want to fuck anything up between us. Dating purely because you’re both into the same gender is a bad idea, and we’re already friends. And what if it’s not a date and I’m reading this all wrong?”

He finds himself pacing until Anakin throws another stress ball at him. 

“Why not ask if it’s a date or not? If it is, good on both of you, and if it’s not you both have fun anyway. Where’re you going?”

“La Tratt.”

“See? Pizza, what could be better? You’ll be fine.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Anakin.”

“No problem! Now, what are you going to wear?”

“Does it matter?”

Anakin huffs dramatically and throws his arms out, catching his right hand on the bunk on top. 

“Of course it matters! If it is a date, you need to look nice!”

“And what if it’s not?”

“As Padmé says, ‘If you’re overdressed people will just assume you’re coming from somewhere better or going somewhere better’”

“Ok, fine. Button down?” 

“Flannel? It’s cold.”

“Ok _mum_ , I’ll wear the flannel.”

“Good.”

Rex grabs his clothes and gets changed quickly, then grabs a beer from the fridge. The fridge is essentially empty, with a couple more beers, the remainder of the pizza, and some form of mold what was probably a tomato at some point. 

“We’ll need to go shopping soon, if you don’t want scurvy again,” He says, opening the beer and pushing Anakin’s feet off his pillow. “I don’t want to have to explain to your mother that you didn’t eat a single green thing for a year again, she’s terrifying.”

“And the rage wasn’t even directed at you!” Rex’s words suddenly sink in, and Anakin squawks indignantly. “I didn’t _have_ scurvy in the first place, it was just a scare! And I can cook!”

“But do you?” Rex eyes his friend over the top of his beer bottle, then notices the time. “Shit. Shit, I’m going to be late.”

He grabs his keys, wallet, and ID, and rushes out of the dorm while Anakin yells “Hell yeah Fett, get some!” behind him. 

***  
The quickest way around the city is the bus, but it’s a friday night and everyone inhabiting it is drunk or otherwise intoxicated. Additionally, the Adelaide metro is a clusterfuck of late buses, dead tramlines, and trains that are falling apart. Case in point, Rex once spent an hour waiting at a stop on Cross Road to get back to town, and once he’d given up and started walking the full 10 kilometres back, the bus he needed zoomed past him. 

There’s the usual pub crawls happening down Rundle street tonight, with uniSA students in noxious blue t-shirts, people from the small campus that Flinders has in Victoria Square, and Adelaide Uni students all mixing together. He thinks he sees Padmé and some of her friends in shirts that denote their status as Adelaide uni law students having a friendly debate with part of the Flinders group, and smiles. The law school has one of the wildest bar crawls in the city, and Rex confidently predicts that they’re all going to be nursing superb hangovers tomorrow. 

So walking it is. Luckily, La Tratt is in the city, and it’s a relatively short walk down King William Street, coincidentally across North Terrace. 

Further on, Victoria Square is lit up from the hotels around it. There’s strains of fancy music on the air, most likely from a party that some bigwig’s holding in the penthouse. The buses and cars roar past as the last of the autumn sunset dips behind the skyscrapers. The Flinders building is all lit up with some conference, and the police station next to it is full up already with the usual friday night miscreants. 

He reaches the restaurant with five minutes to spare, to the wonderful sight of Cody leaning up against the wall in a leather jacket with a pencil behind his ear. What a nerd. He looks really good though, so the pencil is forgiven. 

He sees Rex and walks over, the light from the restaurant playing over his face. 

“Hi, Rex. Wanna go in?”

“Of course.” 

The guy standing at the counter looks them up and down disdainfully as they walk in, his face arranged into a snobby glare. 

“May I help you?”

Cody steps forward and puts on his most charming smile, the one that makes Rex go weak at the knees. 

“Table for two, please.”

The guy makes a show of flicking importantly through his schedule for the night, then looks up and sighs. “I’m afraid we don’t have any tables at the moment, we’re full. Might I suggest coming back?”

“How long will that take?”

“I’m sorry sir, it will be at least two hours.”

Rex and Cody share a look, then Cody speaks to the guy again. “Thanks for your help, we’ll go and find someplace else to eat tonight.”

The guy waves them away, and Rex sees him turn back to the bar and flirt with the barmaid there before Cody grabs his hand and they walk away. 

“Sorry about that, that’s not how I wanted to spend our first date.” He says, looking down at Rex with an apologetic look on his face. 

Oh, so this is a date. Fucking _nice_. 

“So this is a date then?” Goddamnit brain, think of something better to say dammit.

“Well, only if you want it to be…” Cody sounds nervous as all hell, and he falters a couple of steps.

“I’d like it to be a date.” 

“Ah. Ok, good.”

Rex swings their arms aimlessly as they walk up King William Road, leaving the hustle and bustle of the restaurant’s behind them. 

“Is there anything else you wanted to do since I managed to drag you out of your dorm for once?” Cody’s tone turns teasing, and Rex drives his shoulder into Cody’s arm before replying. 

“Fuck you, I leave my dorm!”

“Yeah, when you run out of food!” 

Cody’s side is pressed up against his as they wait at the traffic lights, the familiar lights of Victoria Square shining up ahead of them as the cars rush past in the cool autumn air. 

“Speaking of food,” and Cody’s stomach lets out a growl as he says it, while Rex laughs, “should we go and get some?”

“Sure! Is there anywhere that’ll be open and have a table tonight?”

“There’s some new bar that Wolffe recommended to me, I think it’s in Gouger Street.”

“Why is Wolffe recommending you bars? Isn’t he still seventeen?”

“He’s eighteen. I think. Fuck, I can’t remember.”

“Getting old, are we?”

“Shut it, I’m only nine months older than you.”

“That’s old.”

“Nine months isn’t old!”

“Suuuuuure.”

“It’s not!”

“Anyway, Gouger Street’s up here if we’re still getting food?” Rex steers them towards the lights for Gouger Street, avoiding the puddles of water along the footpath.

“Yeah, food sounds good.”

They fill the rest of the walk with asinine conversation, tucked into each other as the cars drive past and the lights from Central Market and Chinatown spill into the street. 

The bar is nice, full of uni students on a mission to get drunk and forget the essays due tomorrow, but they find a table in the corner away from the crowd and proceed to drink away one of the worst academic weeks in a while. The thumping music takes up residence in Rex’s head and the lights flash over his face, painting him and Cody in shades of neon pinks and purples. 

“Oh my god, if I never have to deal with the chem kids again it’ll be too soon,” Rex laments, downing a shot. “They were in the lecture hall for the astronomy class today and kicked us out.”

Cody snorts. “They’ve taken over the classics department as well. We had to have our classics class in the maths building because they needed the burners in our classroom.”

“Here’s to getting those rat bastards out of our classrooms, then!” 

They clink their glasses together and take another shot. Their conversation drifts aimlessly for a bit, until Cody leans over the table and starts waggling his eyebrows. 

“Hey, got any tattoos?” 

“Yeah, but you’d have to buy me dinner first to see them.”

Cody raises an expansive eyebrow at Rex and gestures to the bowl of chips and the glasses on the table. “Is this enough?”

Rex pretends to think, humming slightly. “I think if you add a kiss, we’ll be square.”

“Y’know, I didn’t think that line would actually work on you," Cody stares at him, looking at Rex’s lips. Rex holds his stare, and smirks at his friend. 

“Shut up and kiss me already.”

Cody leans over their table and kisses him, soft and sweet. When they pull away, they rest their foreheads together. 

“God, I’ve been wanting to do that all year,” Cody mutters. Rex smiles. 

“Well, I’ve been wanting to do that for at least two years, so turnabout is fair play.”

“Two years?” Cody’s voice sounds strangled. “Fuck, I’m sorry it took me that long to realize.”

“Eh, it’s fine. You got it eventually, didn’t you?”

“That’s true. Can I kiss you again?”

“Please.”

The kiss is longer this time, more intense. One of Cody’s hands comes up to cradle Rex’s head, pulling him closer. Rex suddenly wants nothing more than to get Cody in his bed, fuck all that noise about ‘not putting out on the first date’. He pulls off, keeping close to him. 

“Wanna get out of here?”

They’re so close that Rex is basically whispering the words into Cody’s mouth, and Cody pulls him in for one more searing kiss before answering. 

“Definitely. Yours or mine?”

“Dunno. Which dorm is least likely to have a roommate in it?”

“Probably yours. Obi-Wan said something about Anakin coming over, I think.”

“Mine then?”

“Lead the way.”

Rex drags Cody out from behind the table, just as _don’t wanna miss a thing_ starts to blare from the speakers. He can barely hear Cody speak, but he assumes it’s along his line of thought, ie _thank fuck we’re leaving now_. No one likes that song. Well, no one but Anakin, and Rex thinks he likes it just to fuck with everyone. 

And he’s not thinking about his annoying roommate slash best friend anymore because they’re outside the bar and Cody’s kissing him hard with his hand on the small of Rex’s back, lightly tracing circles that make Rex gasp into Cody’s mouth. 

A bunch of drunk students stumble out of the bar and see them, yelling “GET A ROOM!”

He and Cody reluctantly break the kiss and move on. Rex trips over his own feet and accidentally bumps Cody into the streetlight; Cody finds this hilarious and starts laughing uproariously. Rex joins in, because Cody’s laughter is infectious and one of the best things he’s ever heard. 

_Fuck_ he’s in deep. 

They somehow make their way back to the University, arms wrapped around each other with no intent of letting go. The last of the people out on the pub crawls are coming back to the dorms, completely shitfaced.

Eventually they make it back to Rex’s dorm, where Cody’s got Rex pressed into the wall and is sucking a fabulous hickey into his neck, while he fumbles for his keys. Before he can unlock the door, Anakin throws it open with the biggest shit-eating grin ever, holding his laptop. 

“Ha _ha_! Obi-Wan owes me ten bucks!”

Rex sighs and knocks his head back into the wall. Cody groans loudly and stuffs his face into the junction of Rex’s shoulder and neck. 

“Weren’t you going over there?” Rex asks, praying that the answer is yes. 

“I am now, I have to go collect my bet money.”

Cody moves his head up, glaring at Anakin. “I demand my usual twenty percent cut.”

Anakin snorts. “Fuck no, it’s mine.”

Rex just sighs. This is sadly usual for Cody and Anakin, and he just wants to be in his dorm now so they don’t get pinged by the RA for ‘excessive noise in the middle of the night’. Ventress is scary as fuck, and she’s always got one of her terrifying pet scorpions on her shoulder when she’s patrolling. He definitely doesn’t want to get caught up in that right now, so he grabs Cody’s hand and drags him into the dorm past Anakin. 

“Well alright then.” Anakin grabs his charger and notebook, salutes them lazily, and wanders off. Hopefully he stays over at Obi-Wan and Cody’s dorm, or he’s going to get an eyeful. 

The second Anakin’s gone and the door is closed, they’re back to making out like teenagers. They only break apart long enough to get rid of their shirts, and Rex suddenly finds himself on his bed. A crack sounds and Cody reels back, rubbing the top of his head. 

“Ow, _fuck_.”

“Did you hit your head?”

“Yes. Why do you have bunks?”

“Because this room is tiny and it sucks. Want me to kiss it better?”

“I’d rather you kiss me properly,” Cody smirks, still rubbing his head. 

“Be my guest.”

***

Rex wakes up to the novel feeling of someone in his bed, and the evil evil sun streaming through the window straight into his eyes. Next to him (well, more underneath him because this shitty bunk is tiny), Cody groans and pulls the pillow over his eyes. 

“Good morning.” Rex can’t stop the ridiculous smile spreading across his face. Cody sees it and smiles back from under the pillow, hair all mussed up from the previous night’s activities and sleep. 

“S’not morning yet.” Cody sounds adorably grumpy, and Rex tells him so. “M’not _adorable_ , take that back.”

Cody sticks his head out of the pillow to glare sleepily at him, and he kisses Cody quickly before replying. 

“No.”

“You’re adorable too, you know that right?”

“I’m not, _you_ take that back.”

“You are! Even though you were like a human octopus all night.”

“You can’t talk, you stole the blankets!” Rex is still sleepy, but he’s cold as well. He drags himself closer to Cody, letting his cold feet press against the other’s calves. 

“ _Shit_ , move your feet!” Cody starts laughing, and the sound goes right through both of their heads. Fuck hangovers, honestly. The sun’s too bright (even through the shitty window that has the spectacular view of the law building, the ugliest building on campus) and the fucking birds are singing too loudly, and everything hurts. 

“No, you’re warm. And a blanket hog.”

“Human octopus.”

“Nerd.”

“Hush, we can’t have everyone knowing I’m a nerd.”

Rex smiles down at Cody and kisses him again, running his hand through Cody’s hair. “No, that definitely wouldn’t do.” 

Cody leans up and kisses him back, pulling him down to his level. Rex smirks against his- what are they? He should probably ask that at some point, but Cody’s warm beneath him and this is probably one of the best kisses of his life (well, bar some of the ones last night) and it’s made better by the fact that there’s no alcohol making things blurry around the edges, nothing to impede his memory in case this is just a one night stand or something. He’s moved to Cody’s lap, the doona tangled around their legs, when a loud knocking sound comes from the door. 

“COME ON, YOU TWO! I WANT MY ROOM BACK!”

“CAN YOU WAIT FIVE MINUTES?” Rex bellows back at his roommate, who’s probably the one banging on the door. Cody snickers into Rex’s chest, then kisses him gently again. 

“Maybe if we’re really quiet, he’ll go away,” he suggests, and Rex smirks at him.

“We can certainly try-” He’s cut off by Cody kissing him again, and he kisses back before the knocking on the door gets even louder. Rex sighs loudly, and rests his forehead on Cody’s. “We should probably give the room back, shouldn’t we?”

“I hate to say it, but you’re right. Wanna get coffee?”

Coffee sounds great, especially coffee with Cody. Why not?

“Definitely.”

Cody pulls him down for one more quick kiss before they get up and get dressed. Rex’s hair is a mess and there’s a spectacular hickey on his neck (that’s gonna be a bitch to hide, oh well). Cody isn’t much better off, and Rex notes with mild appreciation that his shirt is missing. 

He catches Rex staring, and winks. “I may as well go do the walk of shame now,” Cody teases, “Since _someone_ wanted me to stay over.”

Rex smirks, chucks Cody a spare shirt, and opens the door. Anakin’s waiting down the hall, reading some trashy novel he probably got from Obi-Wan. 

“Nice hickey,” He comments, looking over the top of the book at the two of them. Rex blushes and hastily covers it with his hand, Cody smirks. “Is the dorm safe to inhabit again?”

“Depends on what you class as ‘safe’,” Cody returns, falling into the familiar banter that he and Anakin have. 

Anakin makes a face (Obi-Wan’s declared it the ‘disgruntled cat face; Rex privately thinks he looks more like an annoyed wombat), and then grins at both of them. “Padme’s looking for me, I owe her bet money. Can you cover for me?”

“Do we get the traditional twenty percent each?” Rex asks, “Because if not, then no.”

Anakin seems to be weighing up the benefits of handing over cash to someone, and decides that the money he apparently owes Padme is less annoying than coughing up forty percent of it. “No, I’ll go hand it over.”

“Probably a good idea.”

Anakin wanders off and Rex and Cody walk in the other direction, heading for the one decent (and cheap) coffee shop on campus. 

***  
The cafe smells like hot chocolate and coffee, and it’s one of Rex’s favourite places in the world. The seats are worn and scuffed, but comfy, and there’s books on the wall. The coffee is passable, but it’s good for the price that they can get it at, and the whole place has a calm and unhurried air about it. Well, it usually does. It gets pretty stressful in finals season, when the poor barista’s are suddenly making double and triple shots for everyone that darkens their door. 

They order their drinks after a brief skirmish about who pays. Rex insists on paying, because Cody paid the night before, and technically this is still a date. They go and sit down, favouring a quiet silence that lets both of them nurse their hangovers. 

“This is the best coffee on campus,” Rex mutters, inhaling the warm steam coming off the top of his mug. 

“You said that about the coffee in the refectory in exam season last year,” Cody replies, gleefully sculling half of his mug in one go. 

Rex grins, “You should never ask me where the best coffee on campus is during exam season then.”

Cody snorts. “We should never ask anyone where the best coffee is during exam season. Satine nearly ripped my head off when I tried that in high school.”

“I can imagine,” He replies, taking a sip. Satine is abjectly terrifying. Despite her strong pacifist views, if you accidentally cross her in exam season you can expect a lecture about literally anything, from exams to law school. 

Cody smiles at him gently, fiddling with the rim of his coffee mug. “Hey, what are we?” He asks. 

“What do you mean?” Rex is slightly confused, but that’s become a permanent state of being at the moment (seriously, being an adult sucks. There’s taxes and car insurance and all sorts of shit to deal with, as well as student loans and other university fuckery). 

“Like, are we still just friends? Or are we just messing around, or are we dating?” Cody looks nervous, like he’s overstepped some sort of boundary. 

“I’d like to date.” Dating Cody sounds like the best thing he’s done in ages. 

“Me too, honestly. I really like you, Rex. I’d like to date,” Cody says, grinning at Rex across the table. 

“So, boyfriends?”

Cody smiles at Rex, and leans over the table to kiss him.  
“Boyfriends sounds good.”

**Author's Note:**

> (I know in the actual 90's two guys wouldn't feel safe enough to kiss in public but it's fic and I'm getting kinda sick of the whole 'we can't show our love in public' schtick)  
> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated, as well as anything you'd want to see in further fics!


End file.
